Soldier charged with 17 counts of murder in Afghan case

Mar. 22, 2012 08:52 PMAssociated Press

WASHINGTON -- Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be charged with 17 counts of murder, assault and a string of other offenses in the massacre of Afghan villagers as they slept, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The charges against Bales involve 17 counts of murder, six counts of attempted murder and six counts of aggravated assault as well as dereliction of duty and other violations of military law, the official said on condition of anonymity because the charges had not been announced.

The 38-year-old soldier and father of two, who lives in Lake Tapps, Wash., will be charged with a shooting rampage in two villages near his southern Afghanistan military post in the early hours of March 11, gunning down nine Afghan children and eight adults and burning some of the victims' bodies.

The charges are to be read to Bales today at the military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where he has been held since being flown from Afghanistan last week. He faces trial under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Military authorities had originally said Bales was suspected of killing 16 Afghan villagers. They changed that Thursday to 17, raising the number of adults by one but without explaining how the change came about. It's possible some of the dead were buried before U.S. military officials arrived at the scene.

Bales' civilian attorney, John Henry Browne, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the charges.

Bales was on his fourth tour of duty, having served three in Iraq, where he suffered a head injury and a foot injury. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.

Browne has portrayed his client as a patriot who had been traumatized by a comrade's injury and sent into combat one too many times.

But there have been conflicting reports about what exactly Bales saw relating to the comrade's injury. A U.S. defense official said although it is likely that a soldier from Bales' unit suffered a leg wound, there is no evidence Bales witnessed it or the aftermath.